Traditionally, information associated with a character set has been represented through distinguishing shapes. This approach is universally accepted as the exclusive communication mechanism of written languages. Specifically, written alphabets are defined by varied shapes. The association of other visual stimuli with written character sets to convey information is quite limited.
Specifically, color is not utilized as a primary communication mechanism. Instead, color as a visual stimuli has only been utilized in very limited circumstances. Of course, children's toys have utilized various color alphabet characters. For example, color letters have been imprinted on toy blocks. The colors are only meant to provide an interesting visual stimuli to attract a child's attention. The colors are not intended and do not provide information of any kind. Specifically, the same color is utilized in association with different alphabet characters, rather than each character being assigned a unique color. Accordingly, the colors do not aid the perceptive learning experience of a child.
Also, colors have been utilized to distinguish between vowels and consonants. For example, various teaching tools have associated a single color with consonants and another single color with vowels. However, the use of color to convey information is quite simplistic. The colors are merely utilized as a secondary communication mechanism which involve very limited information. For example, seeing a color assigned to a vowel without recognizing the exact latter merely allows one to determine that the letter is a vowel, but does not allow one to determine the specific letter.
The limited use of color is not limited to communication methods associated with individuals. For example, color has not been utilized to convey information in scanning applications other than the represented color itself. It is possible to scan a photograph to create an RGB bitmap representation. However, the RGB encoded information merely reflects colors present in the photograph. The RGB encoded information is not utilized to convey other information, such as numbers, letters, words, or other language constructs. Also, scanning operations such as bar code readers rely upon shaped visual indicia to convey information. Specifically, bar code readers utilize varying thickness of lines to convey information. Also, optical character recognition systems rely solely upon varied shapes to perform the optical character correlation process.